Jacksonville’s unemployment rate fell to a 10-year low in April, but job growth leveled off.
The unemployment rate in the Jacksonville metropolitan area fell from 4.1 percent in March to 3.8 percent in April, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday.
The metro area comprises Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties.
The state agency does not adjust the Jacksonville data for seasonal factors, but even when it is seasonally adjusted, the rate fell from 4.2 percent in March to 3.84 percent last month, according to the University of North Florida’s Local Economic Indicators Project.
UNF economist Albert Loh said this was the first time the area’s jobless rate fell below 4 percent since May 2007.
Duval County’s unemployment rate fell by 0.3 percentage points to 4.1 percent, without seasonal adjustment, and Loh said the seasonally adjusted rate fell from 4.56 percent to 4.28 percent.
Rather than an increase in jobs, the drop in unemployment in both the metropolitan area and Duval County reflected in part a decrease in the overall size of the labor force.
Loh said he doesn’t think that trend suggests workers are becoming discouraged and dropping out of the work force.
“I think it’s more likely due to retirements and relocations,” he said.
Loh said, for example, construction workers may temporarily relocate to other areas to work on a project, with the intention of coming back to the Jacksonville area when the job is completed.
In fact, the Department of Economic Opportunity’s survey of non-farm businesses found a sharp drop in construction jobs last month.
The sector had a net loss of 1,400 jobs in April from March, a 3.6 percent decline.
With the loss of construction jobs, Jacksonville’s overall job growth rate fell to 2.9 percent in April. That represents a net gain of 19,400 jobs from April 2016 through April 2017, but the growth rate declined from 3.7 percent in March.
Another sector losing jobs is transportation, warehousing and utilities, which lost a net total of 900 jobs in the past year, or 2.6 percent.
That industry was affected by CSX Corp.’s decision in March to shed 500 management-level jobs at its Jacksonville headquarters.
Other industries continued to grow, led by a 9 percent increase in administrative and waste services in the 12-month period and a 6.1 percent gain in retail employment.
Jacksonville’s job growth was higher than Florida’s statewide growth rate of 2.6 percent.
The Jacksonville area unemployment rate also was better than Florida’s statewide seasonally adjusted rate of 4.5 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from March.
Source: Florida Department of Economic Opportunity